Enthusiasm Makes the Difference

One

What Enthusiasm Can Do for You

Like an enormous map, the city of New York lay sharp and clear on that bright April day. From the window of a towering downtown office building, Sandy Hook could be seen far to the south and the George Washington bridge to the north. To the west the low hills of New Jersey retreated in mystic blue haze. The deep-throated whistle of an outward bound ocean liner came faintly from the harbor. The vast network of the world’s greatest city spread out below us.

The man behind the desk was obviously worried and the concerned look on his face underscored his feelings. Sometimes I wish I might escape my responsibility for the people in this organization, he said. Being the executive dealing with personnel can be a headache, believe me. Often I am compelled to do things that I dislike very much. To have the future destiny of people in my hands is something I do not enjoy at all.

But their destiny is not really in your hands, I countered. In the final analysis every man’s destiny is in his own hands. But I sympathize with your problem, for you do indeed have to make decisions concerning people that can vitally affect their future.

And that, he replied, is exactly why I have asked you to come here today. It’s about our mutual friend, Fred Hill. This is one of the most painful decisions I have ever had to make about the future of a man, and I need your help. I assured him that my help was available but that it was not quite clear to me how I, who knew nothing of the business problems involved, could give any practical assistance.

But you see, it’s not entirely a business problem; primarily it’s a human problem. As a matter of fact, this conference may well determine what happens to a dear friend; to his wife and three sons. How effective Fred can be henceforth, not only in business but in other capacities such as the church and community, gives me great concern. You see, he continued, there will be an opening in this organization within the next six months and from the business structural point of view, Fred is the logical choice for the job. I’ve wrestled with my conscience, and in all fairness to the company, I cannot recommend him. So I’m hoping you and I might figure out some way to help revamp Fred and, incidentally, I realize this is a mighty big order.

What needs to be done? I asked. He seems a top-notch man. I can’t imagine anything wrong with him, except perhaps that at times he seems apathetic.

That’s just it, the executive exclaimed. Fred is well trained; he’s had good experience; he has an attractive personality. He’s a good husband and a fine father. But he lacks drive and vitality. Fred hasn’t an ounce of enthusiasm. If we could help him acquire enthusiasm, he’d be the right man for the right job.

In six months’ time? I asked.

Six months, he repeated.

I was lost in thought, for this was a real problem. At last I said, You know, it’s possible that Fred has never been awakened.

My friend quickly picked up that suggestion. You may be right. If it’s so, he’s not the only one. In personnel work, I see it all the time—capable people who’ve never been awakened. If only we could motivate them—starting with Fred. You know, I want to see him realize his potential.

As I rode home in the subway, I studied the faces of the passengers—worried faces, dull faces, unhappy faces. I counted only a few people whose countenances reflected vitality and a positive attitude toward life. Many of us too often accept the humdrum life without making a fight for a better one. We think in a downbeat way that maybe we don’t deserve more.

Just then it occurred to me that one of the greatest human needs of our time is a weapon to fight mediocrity, one that will teach us how to make use of zest and vitality and the creative forces buried deep within us. What we so desperately need is the capacity for exercising enthusiasm. Then and there, I determined to write this book, Enthusiasm Makes the Difference. For I truly believe that enthusiasm makes the difference between success and failure.

As regards Fred Hill—in Chapter Five we will take up in detail what happened to him.

But now I want to talk about enthusiasm and its significance to you. Having carefully observed people over many years, I am convinced that the fortunate individuals who achieve the most in life are invariably activated by enthusiasm. The men who do the most with their lives are those who approach human existence, its opportunities and its problems—even its rough moments—with a confident attitude and an enthusiastic point of view. Therefore, it seems timely to stress the vital power of enthusiasm and to suggest procedures to develop and maintain this powerful and precious motivating force.

Enthusiasm can truly make a difference—the difference in how your life will turn out. Consider, for example, the vast disparity between two current types. One group consists of the optimistic, the cheerful, the hopeful. Since they believe in something, they are the dynamic individuals who set events in motion, always working for the betterment of society, building new enterprises, restructuring old society and creating, hopefully, new worlds.

Modern Youth in Rebellion

Contrast these energetic optimists with those purveyors of gloom, the rebels who defy not only their parents and teachers but their barbers. Lacking the vision and strength to help humanity by righting great wrongs, they play childish games and their rebellion shows itself in rude manners, an aversion to the bathtub, muddled thinking and a cult devoted to nothingness. Enthusiasm has never been a part of a negative cult.

So we must learn how to utilize enthusiasm in order to move into that exciting and creative segment of the human race, the achievers. You will find among them total agreement that enthusiasm is the priceless ingredient of personality that helps to achieve happiness and self-fulfillment.

Sir Edward V. Appleton, the Scottish physicist whose scientific discoveries made possible worldwide broadcasting and won him a Nobel prize, was asked for the secret of his amazing achievements. It was enthusiasm, he said. I rate enthusiasm even above professional skill. For without enthusiasm, one would scarcely be willing to endure the self-discipline and endless toil so necessary in developing professional skill. Enthusiasm is the dynamic motivator that keeps one persistently working toward his goal.

Voltaire once described a man as being like a warming oven, always heating but never cooking anything. Commenting on this viewpoint, Harold Blake Walker points out that many people live without zest, dragging themselves through their jobs without vitality; in a word, heating just enough to get by but never really cooking.

But amazing things do happen, he points out, when a person really catches fire and starts the cooking process. Walt Whitman said of himself, I was simmering, really simmering; Emerson brought me to a boil. What an apt description of a personality, gifted but lacking in power until the fire of enthusiasm brought it to the boiling point. As a result, Whitman created immortal poetry. Isn’t it perhaps time to stop simmering, really simmering, and become fired by a new and vital enthusiasm? The mental and spiritual heat created by enthusiasm can burn off the apathy-failure elements in any personality and release hitherto unused, even unsuspected powerhouse qualities. Walker puts it another way: Go beyond simmering, even to boiling, and you will discover talents and powers you never dreamed were yours.

Years ago I came across a quotation from Charles M. Schwab, one of the dynamic men who built the American industrial structure. A man, said Schwab, can succeed at almost anything for which he has unlimited enthusiasm. And that is an important fact, as we shall show in this book.

It is, of course, true that most outstanding achievements are accomplished over great odds. At the start of every enterprise there are invariably the negativists who darkly opine, It just cannot be done, as they eagerly marshall all the arguments against success. The pessimist is so eager to be able to say, I told you so. Of course such people seldom if ever are constructive, which could be the reason they hope you won’t be either.

Recently, I had the pleasure of conferring an Horatio Alger Award of the American Schools and Colleges Association upon Robert Johnson, Editor and Publisher of the highly successful publication Ebony and other periodicals. He had an idea for a great magazine to serve the Negro community but was, as is often the case, short on money. So he was advised to forget it.

It is some years later, and those so-called friends still cannot forget that they might have owned stock in what is now an immensely profitable enterprise. Mr. Johnson and his wife own all the stock today because he was the only one who had enthusiasm for the project. His enthusiasm bred faith, and faith stimulated action. Robert Johnson is a living example of Charles M. Schwab’s declaration that a man can succeed at almost anything for which he has unlimited enthusiasm. George Matthew Adams expresses the matter equally well: Enthusiasm is a kind of faith that has been set afire.

But I urge you to understand that enthusiasm is related to fire in a special way. It is fire under control, which is the only kind of fire that counts. Fire must be harnessed to produce power. The world belongs to the enthusiast who can keep cool. Thinking in depth and sound action always require coolness. So the process may be described as follows: enthusiasm builds a fire within a person, but he must control his enthusiasm for an idea or a project rather than be controlled by it. He must never allow uncontrolled anticipation to run away with judgment or reason. Like any powerful force, uncontrolled enthusiasm can destroy, as controlled enthusiasm can create.

Little Goals Add Up

As Mr. Johnson developed Ebony magazine, he decided not to attempt immediately the larger goals for which enthusiasm for his project inspired him. Instead, he wisely chose to set and accomplish what he called little goals, one after the other. The attainment of one small goal gave him the feel of success and taught him technique. Then he proceeded with growing experience to tackle the next little goal, and presently those small goals added up to an immense goal. The little goal philosophy is sagacious advice, especially for overheated enthusiasts who, tricked into believing the world is their oyster, attempt too much too fast, only to end up in defeat and frustration.

While warning against overheating, we must with equal emphasis also warn against becoming too cool. A high degree of combustion in the mind is required to keep enthusiasm hitting strongly on all cylinders. The super-sophisticated, who unfortunately control much of the thought-affecting media of our time, superciliously play enthusiasm down. Indeed, any emotion to them, except perhaps existential sadness, seems to be looked at askance as being corny.

My friend, Raymond Thornburg, himself an irrepressible enthusiast, in commenting upon the downgraders of enthusiasm, quoted Anatole France’s wise insight: I prefer the folly of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom. Or shall we call it tired-out cynicism?

Indeed, one should never hesitate to be on the warm side. Even though enthusiastic commitment may carry with it the risk of being wrong, still only those who take the chance will ever attain complete creativity. The committed person, win or lose, is the one who finds the real excitement in living.

Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique, makes a statement which registers. A good woman, she says, is one who loves passionately, has guts, seriousness and passionate convictions, takes responsibility and shapes society. I’m horrified by the word ‘cool.’ Coolness is an evasion of life. Being cool isn’t at all…. I’d rather be hot and wrong. I’d rather be committed than detached. Amen. So would I. So would any do-something-about-it-person. And this is precisely why enthusiasm makes the difference. It lifts living out of the depths and makes it mean something. Play it cool and you may freeze. Play it hot and even if you get burned, at least you will shed warmth over a discouraged and bewildered world.

There are, of course, quite a few people in the couldn’t care less category, who are neither hot nor cold. This emotionally empty crowd apparently has always been around and has never rated very high either. As a matter of fact, in Biblical times they were referred to as …lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. That is a pretty rough evaluation and forthright treatment, but it describes a pretty innocuous lot. If we can help reduce the number of lethargic people and bring even a few of them into the creative enthusiastic class, not only will they get more out of life personally, but the world itself will be improved.

He Couldn’t Care Less—He Said—But He Did

There are many people today who pride themselves on indifference to the normal way of life. They are jaded and bored, and conceal their destructive thinking under the guise of I couldn’t care less. Perhaps it is their defense against living, because life demands total commitment and commitment is apt to bring pain as well as challenge.

Harry Simpson fell into this category. He was the most apathetic man I have ever known. He said he’d been everywhere and had seen everything, including some of the human race which didn’t inspire his esteem. He announced he was fed up with the young rebels and the middle-aged stuffed shirts. As for politics, what difference did it make who was elected? In his opinion, politicians were all crooked, and no matter which party won, the people always lost. He attended baseball games, without even rooting for a team. Even in the World Series, he remained apathetic. He was a cynic and like most cynics, totally selfish and self-indulgent. He felt no obligation to participate in church or civic affairs. As for charities, his was a token gift, simply, as he put it, to shut them up. He couldn’t care less about the needy. Finally his negative attitude won him the nickname of Les, obviously borrowed from his well-known couldn’t-care-less philosophy. In spite of this he was a convivial person; a good golfer, bridge player and club member. He and his wife did considerable entertaining. He had more than average success in his professional career.

Then enthusiasm slipped into the picture and what a difference it made in Harry Simpson. It happened this way. He and his wife decided they needed a change of pace. They came to New York and went the usual round of shows, restaurants and night clubs. Mrs. Simpson enjoyed it, but Harry was unimpressed. I couldn’t care less for this junk, he growled. Let’s clear out of here.

But they had promised a business associate back home to look up a friend in New York and reluctantly Harry telephoned the man. Surprisingly a cordial invitation to dinner was extended, and more surprisingly Harry accepted. I never knew why, he explained, …until later.

There were several other couples present and it proved to be the gayest and happiest evening the Harry Simpsons had spent in years. I can’t figure those people, Harry said when they were back at the hotel. Nobody had a drop to drink, at least as far as I could see. But how come they were all so high? And they actually made politics and world affairs interesting. Did you notice they referred to religion as though it really mattered to them? What have they got that we haven’t?

I don’t know, replied Mrs. Simpson, although she thought she did but wanted him to find out for himself. Why don’t you see our host again and ask him?

So Harry invited his host to lunch and asked How come a group of metropolitan people, supposedly sophisticated, showed such effervescence and excitement?

Well, explained the other, there is a history to the things you noticed. That group is pretty modern and every one of them in varying degree had gotten generally fed up. For myself, I’d about decided that life was just more of the same and I got no real interest out of living. Oh, business was going pretty well but Betty and I were on edge much of the time. The parties we went to were all dull, the same people, the same inane conversation—you know how it is.

Yeah, I sure do, said Harry. That description fits me like a glove. Go on.

Well, anyway, the other man continued, "quite accidentally I ran into the minister of a New York church. In fact, he came to my place of business to make a purchase. I had never met him but had read one of his books. I asked him to step into my office. He never said a word about religion, but I found myself opening up and telling him all about my frustrations and boredom. He listened quietly until I ran down. I thought sure he would start selling me on going to church or pull out a Bible and read to me. But he didn’t. He sat thoughtfully, then asked me ‘What’s next?’

"It seemed a queer question, but of a sudden I actually said, ‘What’s next? What’s next?—I know what it’s all about. I need God.’ I was shocked to hear myself saying that—it just didn’t sound like me at all.

"The minister said, ‘Could be. Guess that’s what we all need. We human beings do have unsatisfied hungers and the principal one is for God.’ The minister rose to go, ‘If you want to pursue this further give me a ring.’ Before I knew it he was on his way and I sat back and smiled, saying to myself, ‘Boy, what a salesman! He leaves me reaching for his merchandise. He knows I am going to buy.’

"Well, I finally went to see this minister and he introduced me to a man, saying, ‘Get to know this fellow. He’s got what you’re looking for.’ This man asked me to join him and a few others for breakfast, of all things. I looked around at the group and they certainly were a regular crowd of good guys yet I never knew men to be so enthusiastic. The atmosphere they created began to get to me. Breakfast over, they started sharing ‘spiritual experiences’ with each other. They told how they applied ‘practical Christian strategy’ to business and personal relations and I could see that these fellows were released. I knew then this same release was what I needed. And staying with that crowd I found it, too. That’s the story. Wouldn’t have told you if you hadn’t asked."

So that’s it, Harry said, after a moment’s silence, just plain old Christianity in new language. But you should see the church I belong to. I seldom attend because it’s dull and the minister is a kind of half-baked socialist, if you ask me. I can’t abide him. Not many others can either, it seems, for only a handful show up on Sunday for services. Our minister needs what you’re talking about, that’s for sure.

Well, said the other, why don’t you get it and then pass it along to your minister? Maybe he is looking for the same thing, but won’t admit it. He certainly can’t be happy about a dead religion.

Don’t dump that on me, Harry grumbled. I’m not about to be a missionary to a God-is-Dead minister. I’ve got myself to think of. But later, he mused, "Maybe God is my answer. Isn’t it something? I came to New York to get away from it all, but instead I’ve got myself into something—really into it."

Harry, puzzled though he was, made a spiritual commitment in his own way. From now on, I’m putting God at the center of my life, he said. Naturally, he had to think and study to get the hang of it. But the strange and reassuring phenomenon in such matters is that whenever a person consciously or unconsciously desires spiritual rejuvenation and begins working toward it on a simple and genuine basis, amazing things do begin happening. The change in Harry did not come about at once or even quickly. But a definite change did begin and it continued, and gradually people became aware of a new Harry Simpson.

You ask me to name our local ball of fire, said one of his golfing partners some months later, and who do you think I’ll name? You’ve guessed it. Harry Simpson.

And what made the difference? I asked.

"Enthusiasm, a new and terrific enthusiasm that made the difference. He is no nut—far from it. In my book he is the sharpest business man in town. But ever since he got this enthusiasm he exudes a strange sense of power and contentment. He was never like that before," he concluded pensively.

I cite Harry’s case because when enthusiasm develops in depth, usually a religious factor is involved. But for that matter, any upsurge of spirit, religious or otherwise, that introduces into the personality a verve, an excitement, an outgoingness, and which raises slow simmering to a boil, will bring about the quality of enthusiasm that makes the difference. Once enthusiasm took over, Harry lost his couldn’t—care—less attitude. The new virtue and the old fault were not compatible.

Enthusiasm—The Spice of Life

I have no idea whether Mr. John Kieran, the well-known writer, is religiously inclined, but that he has avoided apathy is evidenced by some potent expressions of his on the subject of enthusiasm. William Cowper, the English poet, is the man who handed down the opinion that ‘variety is the very spice of life’ but I disagree and I point in passing to the fact that Cowper was three times locked up for insanity, which only shows what too much variety can do to you, writes Kieran.

As for me, I believe that enthusiasm is the spice of life. Emerson wrote: ‘Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.’ When I was a college student I heard David Starr Jordan, then president of Stanford University, tell of a man who said that the only way to make good coffee was to ‘put some in.’ And that was also Dr. Jordan’s advice about life, given to us as students and future citizens. I can still hear him thumping on the desk and saying: ‘Put some in.’ Whatever you attempt, go at it with spirit. Put some in!

I’m prejudiced in this matter, continued Mr. Kieran, because I’m full of enthusiasm for and against persons, places and conditions. It’s more fun that way. An enthusiast may bore others—but he has never a dull moment himself.

Mr. Kieran’s comments are reminiscent of a statement by the historian, Arnold Toynbee, who said, Apathy can only be overcome by enthusiasm, and enthusiasm can only be aroused by two things; first, an ideal which takes the imagination by storm, and second, a definite intelligible plan for a carrying that ideal into practice. Here again are the basic elements of enthusiasm, namely, heat and intelligence and some profound motivation which drives off apathy and cynicism.

Jack London, whose books charmed many of us years ago, summed up the matter thus: "I would rather be ashes than dust. I would rather that my spark would burn out in a brilliant blaze than be stifled by dry—rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function